Watch RESCUE

One Life at a Time

Found a Stray?

Thank you for opening your heart to help a lost dog/cat find their way back home. Below is a detailed list of what you can do to try to reconnect the lost dog/cat with their family. Additionally, if you are unable to find the owner we’ve offered some suggestions of how you can help find another home for the dog/cat if you are unable to adopt them yourself.

We wish you the best of luck and thank you for helping relief some of the enormous stress that the animal community bear in Maricopa County. One person can make a difference. You are making a world of difference to the dog/cat that you saved off the streets!

If the dog or cat does not have a collar with identification, take the animal to a vet to have them scanned for a micro-chip.

If the dog/cat does not have a micro chip, check the pets911 website – www.pets911.com to see if there is a listing for the dog/cat.

If there is no listing for the dog/cat, you can easily put a posting for a found animal. Please check back often for “lost” postings. Sometimes an owner may not be aware that their pet is lost for days.

In addition to the Pet911 posting, make posters for your found dog/cat. Please click here for a sample that you can use. Place these posters everywhere that you found the pet and at several area vets, pets stores and with your neighbors.

If you are unable to locate the owner and cannot adopt the dog/cat yourself, here are some suggestions of how you can find another home for them.

Statistically speaking, more people adopt their pets from friends, family and co-workers then at shelters, breeders and rescue groups combined. So you have better odds of placing the animal yourself. This process can take some time but you can save the dog/cats’ life. If you can help place the dog/cat yourself you are helping alleviate an overburden system that tries to help save the more than 200 dogs and cats that are put to death every day here in Maricopa County.

You can place the dog/cat in any home that you feel is the most appropriate for the dog/cat.

You can charge a potential adopter a fee of any amount or not. Most studies show that people are more likely to care for something that they had to pay for then something that they received for free.

In an effort to help stem the tide of the over pet population, please spay or neuter the dog/cat if they are not already altered. The following organizations offer various spay/neuter programs at reduced rates. Arizona Humane Society – www.azhumane.org, Maricopa County Animal Care and Control – www.maricopa.gov/pets, Spay/Neuter Hotline 602-265-SPAY, Spay & Neuter Clinic 480-829-1002, 602-863-0116, 623-846-3979.

If you can’t care for the dog/cat at your house, ask your friends, family and co-workers if they can help foster the dog/cat while you find a home for them. If they can’t help out, go to your vet, ask them if they can help board the dog/cat at a reduced rate. If your friends, family and co-workers can’t foster, ask them if they would be willing to contribute to the cost of boarding the dog/cat.

Networking and perseverance is the key to placing the dog/cat. Send a detailed email, including photos to everyone you know about the wonderful dog/cat you have found. Ask them to adopt or help foster the dog/cat or if they cannot adopt or foster, ask them to please forward the email to their contact list.

If you have a myspace page, you can add a plea for the stray dog/cat to your site.

If you haven’t been able to find a home after a couple of weeks, don’t give up hope. Send out a new email, with new photos to your contact list asking for help in placing the dog/cat either by adopting/fostering or by forwarding the email to their contact list.

Thank you for all your time, energy and love that you have given to the lost dog/cat. They certainly would thank you if they could. All your efforts not only helped the stray dog or cat find a new home, made a new family happy, but also helped all of us in the animal rescue community! Thank you so much!